Since returning to his base, the 20-year-old private has felt the scorn of other soldiers - through stares and words - who are appalled that he hired someone to shoot him in the leg to avoid returning to Iraq.

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"Some guys have been giving me a hard time, here and there," Aponte told the Daily News at Fort Hood, where he arrived Thursday after being ordered back by the U.S. Army. "It's random people," he said. "Not really anyone I know. They've been saying, 'You're a piece of s---.' I'm trying to take it lightly."

For the young G.I., the timing of his return could not have been worse. The day he got to Texas, officials announced two Fort Hood soldiers - Pfc. Ron Joshua, 19, and Pfc. Brandon Bobb, 20 - had been killed by a bomb.

The news left few soldiers sympathetic to Aponte's struggle.

"I wouldn't want him next to me in combat - not a chicken like that," said Dee Xiong, 22, an infantryman set to redeploy in December after serving 10 months in Iraq.

"What he did was wrong," said a 20-year-old Army mechanic who served a year in Iraq. "You know what you sign up for and you just have to finish it out."

Even residents and merchants near the base frowned on Aponte's actions, though they expressed a sincere appreciation for the difficulty of his job.

"He should have went about it in a different way," said Nancy Watts, 50, a manager at an Arby's. "There are people who can help you," said Watts, whose daughter is a retired Army medic. "I feel sorry for him that he felt he had to do something so drastic."

But one soldier confided he has thought about faking an injury to get out of service - saying the burden of war can leave the mind and body totally warped.

"I understand where he's coming," said a 20-year-old grunt from Amarillo, Tex., who asked not to be named. "There's a lot of stress and no downtime. People will do desperate things to stay with their families."

Aponte had served 10 months in Iraq when he returned to the Bronx on a two-week leave in June. He was scheduled to be redeployed on July 9. Instead of reporting for duty that day, he arranged to be shot in the knee by an acquaintance in exchange for $500, he has admitted.

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He said he was so psychologically damaged by his time in Baghdad he could not return for another eight months, and that his scheme was hatched out of desperation.

Aponte, his wife and the alleged triggerman, have been charged with conspiracy and face serious jail time.